I decided to burn through some more of my scrap wood, this time stuff left over from when I built the miter saw/router table station. There was some pretty good sized 1/2″ plywood left over cut at odd angles (which was itself scrap from our shelving project).

I have been mulling over what to do with this odd sized (about 2′ x 4′) wood and finally hit on an idea: a saw till.

For a while now, my master plan has been to get the tools that I use regularly (that is, the hand tools) out of the tool chest we have and up on the walls for easy access. Due to the layout of my garage/shop and the size of the wheeled tool chest (it’s in three pieces, but there’s no really good spot to store any of the three that won’t make the whole thing impractical) is nearly opposite the workbench area. So…tired of walking back and forth carrying tools, I decided to pull ’em out.

But what to do with empty drawers in the tool chest when this monumental task is complete? Fill it with the whole/partial boxes of fasteners (we have a good sized plastic tote (not the big 18 gallon ones, mind you) full of this stuff. I want it organized and easy to get to and easy to keep away from the munchkins who loooove to play in the garage.

Step one: get the tools out of the chest.

Step two: build something for them to be kept in.

Step three: fill the tool chest with fasteners.

Easy enough. Right?

So I took one of the pieces of odd plywood and cut some smaller backer pieces to a size that would fit in between the massive 2″x 6″ studs along the garage wall. This will place the saw till just to the left of my random fasteners organizer and just above the right end of the workbench. I attached three backer pieces, top, bottom and middle, with screws. Pilot holes and screwing in were a breeze with the drill and impact driver duo. Love it.

Next up, I attached the other side…then used three pieces of 2″x 4″ cut-0ff to make a base for the saw handles to rest, and two blocks to make saw kerfs to line up the saws. All were attached to the backer boards (didn’t even think of that when I slapped this together but it worked out pretty well!) with screws in record time.

The bottom was left intentionally long so I could add a plywood base and make a little shelf. What to put there, I hadn’t the foggiest when I built this. I was thinking a little drawer…

Then it hit me—hand planes!

Here it is mounted to the wall, hand planes in their new home along with the saws (lol yes a lot of work for 3 cheap-o saws…including a really bent backsaw and a short carpenters saw that’s missing half’s it’s teeth).

And here it is in relation to the bench/shop…I am mighty pleased with this little knocked together saw till. A year ago, this idea never would have occurred to me, but now…I’m just bubbling over with stuff like this. Had I some nicer scraps or the money to buy nicer hardwood, it would have looked a lot better, but, as it is, purely utilitarian and sturdy as hell, I like it a lot.

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About Marcus Richardson

Marcus attended the University of Delaware and later graduated from law school at the age of 26. Since then, he has at times been employed (or not) as: a stock boy, a cashier, a department manager at a home furnishing store, an assistant manager at and arts and crafts store, an unemployed handyman, husband, cook, groundskeeper, spider killer extraordinaire, stay at home dad, and a writer.